The first consideration would be the type of questions your test needs to have. Blackboard has a wider variety of question types and, depending on the subject matter of the test, this may be the deciding factor.

With Xerte you can create interactive, multi-media, accessible learning objects using just a web browser – no need to install any additional software on your computer. Xerte is available for any members of staff in FET to use.

TurningPoint is polling software that enables students to ‘vote’ or respond to questions in classrooms and lecture theatres using ‘clickers’ and/or smartphones, tablet computers or laptops to make responses. TurningPoint can help make teaching in classrooms and lecture theatres more interactive. It can be used, for example, to survey views, assess understanding, group revision, and to give learners more control of the content or pace of lectures.

A blog is a website which usually takes the form of a series of posts arranged in reverse-chronologocal order, i.e. the most recent post appears at the top of the page. Students writing their own blogs, commenting on other people’s blogs, and consulting blogs written by experts in their field are common learning activities in Higher Education today.

A wiki is a website where users can easily add, edit and delete content without specialist software or technical knowledge. Users can create new wiki pages and link them to others, and they can edit existing pages, including those created by other learners.

For several years now wikis and blogs have both been widely used in Higher Education. Both are platforms for easily publishing material to the web and both provide a platform for feedback. Both are ideal for learner-centred activities with learners taking part in collaborative tasks aiding knowledge construction. And both can be used to deliver rich content for learners to absorb.